Dealing with extremely blotchy wood

[Wade Lippman]

I am using some unknown wood with an extremely profound ribbon figure; it makes sapele look plain.
I tried a gel stain and it blotched horribly.
I tried tinted shellac and it blotched. I didn't think anything could blotch with tinted shellac.
I did get good results by diluting some wood filler and filling the entire surface. After sanding the excess off, it then took gel stain beautifully.
Only problem is that is an awful lot of work to sand the excess filler off, and will be a real bear on small pieces.(of course, it might not matter if small pieces blotch, as long as I can get the same color.)

So, any other ideas?

[Andrew Fleck]

Do you own a sprayer? If so, you can try spraying light coats of dye on it so you don't have to wipe. Once you wipe it's over. This has always worked for me when I use blotchy wood.

[Bob Wingard]

I've had great results with Charles Neil's BLOTCH CONTROL, but then, I've never used it on anything THAT figured. Give him a call ... he will set you straight.

[Wade Lippman]

I tried spraying and it seemed to have less blotch, but I sure couldn't get an even coat with the mickey mouse equipment I used.
I have ordered the Blotch Control. For the price it had better work! (of course, it is cheaper and takes up less room than good spray equipment)
Thanks.

[Charles Neil]

issues or questions, charles@charlesneilwoodworking.com

[John TenEyck]

You might want to look into better spraying equipment. As stated above, spraying on the dye is an excellent way to prevent blotching. It's also a great way to apply many finishes. You don't need to spend a lot of money on a very serviceable gun either. Even the HF gun at $12 on sale lays down a very nice finish.

John

[Scott Holmes]

Try using a dye instead of a pigment stain.

[Wade Lippman]

Try using a dye instead of a pigment stain.

Sad to say, that blotched also.
Worst wood I every used was sycamore, but this is much much worse.

[John TenEyck]

Spray the dye. If you spray just enough to wet the wood it won't blotch because there is no excess like there is when you apply it manually with a sponge, etc.

John

[Prashun Patel]

Sand up to a higher grit, like 400.

spray an alcohol or acetone soluble dye. It will sit near the surface.

if you want to stay with gel stain, then seal with blonde shellac first, then stain.

or....forgo the color, accent it with oil, and let it be glorious.

[Wade Lippman]

Success!
I:
1) Raised the grain (not recommended, but I found it helped)
2) Applied two coats of blotch control
3) Applied dark water based dye
4) Applied walnut gel stain
5) Applied darkly tinted shellac
6) Varnished.

The ribbon figure looks really nice, with no blotching.
A water based stain went on darker than the gel stain, but I couldn't get it on evenly.

[Michael Mahan]

Success!
I:
1) Raised the grain (not recommended, but I found it helped)
2) Applied two coats of blotch control
3) Applied dark water based dye
4) Applied walnut gel stain
5) Applied darkly tinted shellac
6) Varnished.

The ribbon figure looks really nice, with no blotching.
A water based stain went on darker than the gel stain, but I couldn't get it on evenly.
So did you sand between all those different steps ??